# Find themes in comments or interview notes: prompt chain Read a set of comments, survey answers or interview notes, label each one, group the labels into themes, then count each theme and back it with two real quotes. **Made for:** Anyone who has to make sense of open-ended feedback and report what it says, without a research background. ## Before you start Have these ready: - **The comments** (required): Paste the comments with one comment on each line. Remove names and other personal details first. - **What you want to learn** (required): The question the comments were collected to answer, or what you need to decide. **How to use this chain** 1. Open a new chat in any AI assistant. 2. Copy the Step 1 prompt, replace every [PASTE HERE: ...] slot with your material, and send it. 3. Keep each answer: later steps ask you to paste it in. Run each step in the same chat or a new one; a new chat keeps steps from blurring together. 4. After a step that has a check, run the check before you move on. ## Step 1: Label each comment Give every comment a short label that says what it is about. Copy this prompt: ````text You are a careful analyst who reads feedback one comment at a time. Your task is to give every comment below a short label of two to four words that says what it is mainly about. What we want to learn: [PASTE HERE: What you want to learn] The comments, one per line: [PASTE HERE: The comments] Rules: - Go through every comment, in order. Do not skip or merge comments. - If a comment is about two things, give the label for the main one, then add a second label after a slash. - Base each label only on what the comment says. Do not guess what the person meant. - Do not group or count yet. Return one markdown table with one row for every comment, and nothing else: | # | Comment (quote) | Label | Copy each comment word for word into the quote column. You may shorten a long comment with "..." but do not change any words. ```` **You get back:** A table with every comment, its number and its label. **Check after Step 1: Every quote is really in the comments** Check by eye: Every quote in the Comment (quote) column appears word for word in the comments. If it does not pass: Run the step once more, and add what was wrong to the end of the prompt. If it still does not pass, fix it by hand and make a note of it. ## Step 2: Group the labels into themes Join labels that mean the same thing into a small number of themes. Copy this prompt: ````text You are an analyst who finds patterns in feedback. Your task is to group the labels below into themes. A theme is a group of comments about the same thing. What we want to learn: [PASTE HERE: What you want to learn] The labeled comments: [PASTE HERE: the answer from Step 1 (Label each comment)] Rules: - Make between 3 and 8 themes. Name each theme in plain words a busy reader understands. - Put every comment number in one theme only. A comment with two labels goes in the theme of its first label. - A theme needs at least two comments. Comments that fit no theme with another comment go in a separate list called "One-off comments", under the table. - Do not drop any comment. Every number from the table must appear once in a theme or in the one-off list. - Do not count or quote yet. Return one markdown table, then the list: | Theme | What it covers | Comment numbers | One-off comments: (the comment numbers, or "None") ```` **You get back:** A table of themes with the comment numbers in each, and a list of one-off comments. **Check after Step 2: Every theme names its comments** Check by eye: Every row of the table has something written in "Theme" and "Comment numbers" (a blank or a dash does not count). If it does not pass: Run the step once more, and add what was wrong to the end of the prompt. If it still does not pass, fix it by hand and make a note of it. ## Step 3: Count each theme and pick two quotes Count the comments in each theme and back each theme with two real quotes. Copy this prompt: ````text You are an analyst who reports feedback honestly and shows the evidence. Your task is to count the comments in each theme and choose two quotes for each theme. The themes: [PASTE HERE: the answer from Step 2 (Group the labels into themes)] The comments, with their numbers: [PASTE HERE: the answer from Step 1 (Label each comment)] Rules: - The count is the number of comment numbers listed in the theme. Count them one by one. - Choose the two quotes that show the theme most clearly. Copy them word for word from the comments. Do not tidy, fix or shorten the wording. - Sort the table with the biggest theme first. - Do not add themes, drop themes or move comments between themes. Return one markdown table, then one line: | Theme | Count | Quote 1 | Quote 2 | Total comments counted: (the sum of the Count column plus the one-off comments) ```` **You get back:** A table of themes with a count and two quotes each, and a total. **Check after Step 3: Every first quote is really in the comments** Check by eye: Every quote in the Quote 1 column appears word for word in the comments. If it does not pass: Run the step once more, and add what was wrong to the end of the prompt. If it still does not pass, fix it by hand and make a note of it. ## Final checks Run these on the finished result. **Final check 1: Every second quote is really in the comments** Check by eye: Every quote in the Quote 2 column appears word for word in the comments. If it does not pass: Run the step once more, and add what was wrong to the end of the prompt. If it still does not pass, fix it by hand and make a note of it. **Final check 2: Every theme has a count and two quotes** Check by eye: Every row of the table has something written in "Count", "Quote 1" and "Quote 2" (a blank or a dash does not count). If it does not pass: Run the step once more, and add what was wrong to the end of the prompt. If it still does not pass, fix it by hand and make a note of it. **Final check 3: The total matches the number of comments** Open a new chat (so the check is not swayed by the work) and paste this check prompt: ````text You are a careful reviewer. You do not fix or rewrite the work; you only decide whether it passes one check. The check: The total matches the number of comments Count the comments in the list below. Does the total in the last answer equal that number, and do the counts in the theme table plus the one-off comments add up to it? The comments: [PASTE HERE: The comments] The work to check (the answer from Step 3 (Count each theme and pick two quotes)): [PASTE HERE: the answer from Step 3 (Count each theme and pick two quotes)] Reply with exactly PASS or FAIL on the first line. On the second line, say in one sentence why. If it fails, name the exact item or line that fails. Do not add anything else. ```` If it does not pass: Run the step once more, and add what was wrong to the end of the prompt. If it still does not pass, fix it by hand and make a note of it. **Final check 4: The themes fit what people said** Ask yourself: Read the themes and two or three of the quotes under each. Does each theme say what the quotes say, and is any important point missing or lost inside a bigger theme? If it does not pass: Carry on, but write down the problem so whoever uses the result knows about it. ## What you end up with - A table of themes, each with a count and two real quotes. - A list of one-off comments that did not fit a theme. - The labeled list of every comment, in case you want to check or regroup it. ## Changing this chain - To report themes by group (for example by team or by month), add the group to each comment line before you paste and add a Group column to the first table. - To change how many themes you get, change the numbers in the Group step's rules. - For a large set of comments, run the Label step on batches of 50, then paste all the labels into the Group step. - If the quotes are too long for your report, add a word limit to the Count step's rules, but keep the check that quotes are copied exactly. --- From Logic Lab (logiclabhq.com). Free to use and adapt, with credit.